An Ohio prison official says the new execution process in the state first used in January worked “very well.” Donald Morgan, warden of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, is quoted in the Dayton Daily News from information obtained in two state reviews of the two-drug cocktail.

It was used for the first time in the January execution of Dennis McGuire. His death took about 25 minutes, making it the longest execution in Ohio in 16 years. Witnesses reported McGuire gasped and snorted for air for several minutes.

An unprecedented third review of the execution is under way by state prison officials.

A federal appeals court has rejected arguments by a condemned Ohio killer facing a never-tried execution method that he received poor legal assistance before sentencing.

Attorneys for death row inmate Dennis McGuire have repeatedly argued his original lawyers didn’t do a good enough job presenting evidence about his tough childhood to the jury deliberating his fate.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati turned down the latest appeal Monday by McGuire. He faces execution Jan. 16 for the 1989 rape and fatal stabbing of Joy Stewart, who was pregnant at the time.

The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction is expected to announce soon which of two types of lethal injection processes it will use to put the 53-year-old McGuire to death.